Universidad Autónoma de Madrid | |
 Seal of the Autonomous University of Madrid | |
Other name | UAM, La Autónoma |
|---|---|
| Motto | Latin:Quid Ultra Faciam? |
Motto in English | What Else Shall We Do? |
| Type | Publicautonomous university |
| Established | 6 June 1968[1] |
Academic affiliations | EUA, CRUE,SSU |
| Budget | €334.4 million (2020)[2] |
| Rector | Amaya Mendikoetxea Pelayo |
Academic staff | 2,505 (2015/16)[2] |
Administrative staff | 1,036 (2015/16)[2] |
| Undergraduates | 21,203 (2015/16)[2] |
| Postgraduates | 6,701 (2015/16)[2] |
| 3,818 (2015/16)[2] | |
| Location | Madrid ,Spain 40°32′43″N3°41′46″W / 40.5453°N 3.69611°W /40.5453; -3.69611 |
| Campus | Rural, 650 acres (260 ha) |
| Colours | Green[3] |
| Website | www.uam.es |
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TheAutonomous University of Madrid (Spanish:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid;UAM), commonly known asla Autónoma,[4][5] is a Spanishpublic university located inMadrid, Spain. The university was founded in 1968 byroyal decree. UAM is widely respected as one of the most prestigious universities in Europe. According to theQS World University Rankings 2022, UAM is ranked as the top university in Spain and has consistently ranked as #1 in Spain in theEl País University rankings, published annually. Among its notable alumni, which include every president that theSupreme Court of Spain andConstitutional Court of Spain has had, is the current King of Spain,Felipe VI, who studied the Licenciatura en Derecho (Law) and is the president of UAM’s alumni society.
The campus of the university spans a rural tract of 650 acres (260 ha), mostly aroundmetropolitan Madrid. Founded in 1968, its main campus, Cantoblanco, is located near the cities ofAlcobendas,San Sebastián de los Reyes andTres Cantos. UAM's Cantoblanco Campus holds most of the university's facilities. It is located 15 km (9.3 mi) north of Madrid and has an extension of over 2,200,000 m2 (24,000,000 sq ft). Of these, nearly 770,000 m2 (8,300,000 sq ft) are urbanised and about a third of them are garden areas. UAM offers 94 doctorate programs across the university. It also offers 88 master's degrees.
According to a study carried out by the newspaperEl Mundo, in 2021, UAM was the best university in the country to study biology, nursing, medicine, physics and law, within the 50 careers with the highest demand.
TheStabilization Plan of 1959 and the development plans of the 1960s boosted the Spanish economy after years of austerity and the self-sufficiency-based economy.[4] The end of diplomatic and economic isolation led to an economic boom in Spain that resulted in the consolidation of a middle class similar to that of otherWestern European nations. The demand for higher education increased, and the Spanish university system grew increasingly congested.[4]
The Autonomous University of Madrid was established by the 5-1968 Decree approved by the SpanishCouncil of Ministers during theFrancoist dictatorship along with theAutonomous University of Barcelona and theUniversity of Bilbao. This decree was sponsored by the then-Minister of Science and Education, José Luis Villar Palasí, in order to restructure the Spanish university system. The nameUniversidad Autónoma de Madrid first appeared in an executive order by the Ministry which was published on 13 August 1968.[6]
On 8 June 2018 the Autonomous University of Madrid celebrated its 50th anniversary with a series of commemorative events.
UAM's Cantoblanco Campus is home to most of the university's facilities. It is located 15 km north of Madrid and has an extension of over 2,200,000 m2. Of these are nearly 770,000 are urbanised and about a third of them are garden areas. The campus was designed as auniversity town that was to be self-sufficient, but also would be situated away from Madrid in order to keep student activity against theFrancoist dictatorship away from the capital.
Initially, the campus held the faculties ofphilosophy andliberal arts,law,economics,business management, andscience, as well as the rectorate, several other service buildings and sports facilities. The university's other facilities, the faculty ofmedicine and theteacher training Santa Maria school are in downtown Madrid. There are two other teacher training schools inSegovia and inCuenca. Over the years, the faculty ofpsychology, thebiology building of the faculty of sciences, the new faculty of law (that allowed the transfer of the teacher training school to the main campus, and that was later transformed in faculty of education and teacher training) along with itspolitical science annex building, thepolytechnic school (initially superior technical school of computing engineers), the libraries ofhumanities and sciences, as well as theErasmus of Rotterdam dormitory have been built on the main campus.
The original faculties were housed in interconnected buildings with several patios in between them. Characteristic to each building is a large number of stairs in its corridors, initially designed to prevent students from running in case of police raids. Currently, this fact has been considered by many university officials as a setback in the integration of handicapped students. The newest facilities were built in a contemporary style, being more accessible and allowing more free movement to students. Sporting facilities include two swimming pools (an indoor one and an outdoor one), two multiple-use pavilions, and outdoor tennis, football, basketball, paddle tennis, rugby, and futsal and beach volleyball courts.
Other services on campus include 16 cafeterias and other eating facilities, medical services, a pharmacy with optic care, a foreign languages pavilion, and a bookstore. The campus also houses several research facilities partnered with the Spanish Scientific Research Council (CSIC). Cantoblanco Campus is accessible by train belonging toRenfeCercanias Commuter service (station Cantoblanco-Universidad), or by the Madrid Region Commuter Bus service. The campus is located in the B1 area of theMadrid Transports Consortium.
UAM's faculty of medicine is located north of Madrid nearLa Paz teaching hospital (that acts as one of the faculty's teaching hospitals, as Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda Hospital,La Princesa Hospital, Niño Jesús Hospital and Fundación Jiménez Díaz do). It was inaugurated in 1969. Juan Luis Vives Residence Hall was UAM's first residential facility. It is located in the Plaza Castilla area in northern Madrid. It has 130 residents and holds several cultural activities for the university.
La Cristalera residence is located inMiraflores de la Sierra, a village north of Madrid that was acquired by the university in 1989. It is used for conferences and meetings and is the main centre of UAM's summer courses.
The UAM is divided into eight faculties and superior schools that support and coordinate most of the university's academic and administrative activity. Each faculty is divided into departments that coordinate the teaching and research of the different subjects. Researchers can organise into research institutes in order to coordinate their activities in a specific research field. The university totals up to 59 departments and eight research institutes. In addition to these, the UAM has seven associate schools, which are not completely part of UAM's administrative structure, but issue UAM-recognised titles and are under UAM's academic regulations.
Faculties and superior schools:
Associate schools are:
UAM administration is established according to the 2023 Organic Law of the University System (LOSU). The Senior Academic and Administrative Officer of the Autonomous University of Madrid is the rector, who must be, by law, a chair professor serving in the university, elected every four years with a two-term limit by universal graded suffrage. The currentrector is Amaya Mendikoetxea, chair of EnglishLiguistics, who was elected in 2021, becoming the second woman Rector of the University. The rector appoints an indefinite number of vice-rectors to lead different administrative departments of the university (such as Student affairs or Graduate academic affairs), and a secretary general coordinating the rector's team and overseeing the legal procedures of the university, as well as university protocol. Per the university's social board, the rector also designates the manager as part of his team, which oversees the university's economic and administrative activity.
The grades assigned to each sector for rectoral elections in UAM according to its charter are:
UAM's collective government bodies are the University Assembly, The Board of Governors, and The Social Board. The University Assembly is made up of 153 full professors, 84 students, 27 hired, associate, or emeritus professors, 27 members of the non-teaching personnel, 9 research or teaching trainees, the rector, the secretary-general, and the manager. It is the highest representative body of the university. It elaborates the university's general guidelines, changes or passes a new university charter, elects twenty members of the Board of Governors, and elects the universityOmbudsman.
The Board of Governors is the ordinary governmental body of the university. It controls and passes regulations on most of the university's academic, personnel, and administrative issues. It is composed of the rector, the secretary-general, the manager, 20 members elected by the assembly according to its composition, all the deans and the head of the polytechnic school, 7 heads of department, a head of a research institute, 15 members designated by the rector and three members of the Social Board.
The Social Board is the body responsible for the relations between the university and society. Its members are designated by trade unions, the municipality of Madrid, employers unions, companies related to the university, the Madrid Assembly and the Board of Governors of the university. It also oversees the universities financial activities and passes the university budget. Its current chairman isManuel Pizarro.
Faculties are headed by a dean, whilst the responsible of the polytechnic school is called head. They are elected in the same way as the rector and have also a limit of two four-year terms. They are aided by vice deans or deputy heads. They are overseen by a faculty or school board. Departments are led by the head of the department and overseen by the department council.
UAM offers Spanish undergraduates fully recognized degrees. There are theDiplomatura andIngenierías Técnicas (technical engineering), which are three-year studies equivalent to an associate degree.Licenciaturas andIngenierías Superiores are four to five years studies equivalent to a bachelor's degree. Along with that, UAM offers second levellicenciaturas, which allow people who have a diplomatura to obtain alicenciatura by taking courses. In other case, they must have at least the first two or three years of alicenciatura and combined degree, which are very popular among Spanish students. They also offer courses in languages other than Spanish.
In addition to the Faculties where the degrees on the different fields of knowledge and science are studied —Faculty of Science, F. of Business and Economic Science, F. of Law, F. of Philosophy and the Arts, F. of Teacher Training and Education, F. of Psychology, F. of Medicine and School of Engineering— there are external centers that teach specific studies and their associated degree: "La Salle" Centre of Higher Education, The Red Cross School of Nursing, The Jimenez Diaz Foundation University School of Nursing, The ONCE University School of Physioterapy.[7]
UAM offers 94PhD programs in all of the universities programs. It also offers 72 master's degrees, and with the implementation of theBologna Process 16 recognised master's degrees for theacademic year of 2006–07.[8]
In addition, the alliance of the four leading Spanish public Universities, two in Madrid (Autónoma University of Madrid and Universidad Carlos III) and two in Barcelona (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona,Universitat Pompeu Fabra) allows close collaboration between projects and researchers.[9]
| University rankings | |
|---|---|
| Global – Overall | |
| ARWU World[10] | 301–400 (2023) |
| QS World[11] | 206 (2026) |
| THE World[12] | 351–400 (2024) |
| USNWR Global[13] | =231 (2023) |
Throughout its history, the UAM has been one of Spain's most prominenthigher education institutions,[14] being ranked first amongst Spanish universities by theEl Mundo University Supplement (known as "Las 50 Carreras").[15][16] It has also consistently ranked as the #1 law school in Spain for the past 100 years. For the subject "Mathematics" the university was ranked within top 51-75 universities in the world (within top 12 in Europe).[17] It was the Spanish university with the most researchers among the most cited according to theThomson Reuters ranking citation in 2011.
The Autonomous University of Madrid has an active student body, having organised one of Spain's most important events against the dictatorship in 1976 called the Iberian Peoples Festival. It had an attendance of over 70,000. UAM has over a hundred student societies covering activities ranging fromstudent unionism to theatre and music. The oldest active association in UAM is the Law Students Association (AED in Spanish), a left-leaning student union established in 1981. Furthermore, there are new prominent societies in the field of social sciences, such a Debate Society (Sociedad de Debates UAM) and a Model UN society (UAM-I-MUN), both founded and run mainly by law students.
UAM does not have a formal student government body, as it has been rejected by students in several occasions, and instead students elect different student unions (usually with difference on political issues) to the different university government bodies.
In recent years, UAM students have organised massively to protest against terrorism, after the assassination of Francisco Tomas y Valiente byETA in 1995, against the Organic Law of Universities in 2001, to clean Spain's northern coast after thePrestige oil spill in 2002, against theWar in Iraq in 2003, to assist to the IIEuropean Social Forum also in 2003, and in solidarity with the victims of the11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings.
UAM is also a festive campus, holding several festivals during spring. The most important one was the Spring festival held until 1993, but halted due to overcrowding. Since then minor festivals have been held by student associations. These festivals usually consist of rock concerts by amateur rock bands (many of which have members that are UAM) from midday until dusk. According to university regulations, festival profits have to be destined tocharities or to the organisation of cultural events. In 2005, due to overcrowding of the festivals that led to several problems, university officials suspended further festivals until a more convenient place for their celebration would be found. Thus, no festivals were held in 2006.
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40°32′43″N3°41′46″W / 40.5453°N 3.69611°W /40.5453; -3.69611
